Webupon

It certainly appears that one of the city of Conneaut’s web site owners has stepped upon a few sensitive toes and perhaps scratched a few butts the wrong way. These people are appearing to be out for blood. When I went to the site in question, (everythingconneautohio.com) I was truly amazed and at the same time appalled when I read the letter which the city manager had sent to the site owner.

It appears that the socialist mentality has been slowly drifting from the national level to the city level as well. A recent situation has been developing between the current city administrators and one of their local web site operators. The major concern here appears to be a matter of free speech. The city administrators feel that one must not step upon the toes of those in power and as such has instructed his legal arm to create a cease and desist order for any information which they deem as relating negatively to their municipal offices. This letter of which I have read a copy of was authorized by the city manager who is a Mr. Robert Schaumleffel Jr.

It appears that the city manager is now using his position as a means of revenge since the web site owner has been accused of making adverse accusations concerning him. He went on to explain that he felt that Schwartz was trying to dig up dirt on him and his administrative assistances. My advise to you sir is if you are in politics keep yourself clean. It totally amazes me why it is so difficult to find honest people involved in politics these days but that is another matter. Although he has stated that he is tired of the personal attacks he is placing himself directly in view of the public for additional ones in a short period of time. He has even gone so far as to correct those council members in attendance at a meeting who failed to defend him against those who were speaking out towards him.

These are the kind of actions which must be stopped in the bud as we must not allow individuals to use public offices to dictate what is permitted with private businesses. The order that was issued to site owner Katie Schwartz clearly steps beyond those boundaries of private and public use.

In addition, If I am erroneous in my assessment please correct me but in one of the letters the city superstars mentioned that the City TV station was “owned by the city” and not the web site owner nor any citizen.

Hummm, shake me timbers friend. Is this city owned by merely one individual? Has perhaps one person become a crook and proceeded to steal the rights from the public for this city? I have always been under the impression that community areas are organized the same around our nation and are created by and for the people regardless of where you may reside. According to my understanding the citizens therefore would own the TV station and the citizens would rightfully make the determination as to its useful end.

This city manager clearly owes Ms. Schwartz an apology for the letter and should publicly rescind it. The major claim being established by Schaumleffel is that people may confuse the web site with an official site of the city. Now really, this is not accurate in the least. First off if this man had any concept of web sites he would know that there is a major difference here. For one thing he would more then likely have a .gov site since he would be qualified to obtain that domain.  In addition most city related sites do not have commercial advertising on them.

In view of some of Mr. Schaumleffel’s attitudes here and his seemingly dictatorial way of governing it is logical that the city should be very quickly replacing this man. I personally would not care to visit a location that had such a person in charge and I strongly would advise others to do the same. Until positive actions are taken to rid the city of his control it is likely that any tourist population will certainly decrease. With this thought firmly in mind it sounds to me as if the Citizens of this friendly town need to replace some of the pompous asses which are making the decisions within their community.